Archive for February, 2015

The Marketing, Myths, and Magic — Demystifying the Marketing Pipeline event will be taking place this week starting Tuesday, March 3. This is a chance to learn your marketing strengths and get tips to become better at what you do. It’s just one of the many events packing the March calendar.

To see a full list or to submit your own event, contest or award listing, visit the Small Business Events Calendar.

“IT IS quite obvious that incremental change is not going to take us anywhere,” claimed Arun Jaitley, India’s finance minister, at the start of his 95-minute budget speech on February 28th. “We have to think of a quantum jump.” Mr Jaitley thus set the scene for a bold, visionary and reforming budget of the sort that would convince investors, foreign and home-grown, that India was a country on which to place long-term bets. The budget was undoubtedly a reforming one: Mr Jaitley announced a welter of initiatives, many of them ambitious, almost all conducive to economic growth. What was missing was vision of where it would all lead. There were plenty of strong threads in the budget, but Mr Jaitley missed a chance to twist them into a good yarn. One wondered what a more gifted speaker might have made of this material.

The basic macro-economics of the budget were solid enough. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will soon have a formal inflation target enshrined in a new RBI Act, said Mr Jaitley. Yet it was odd that such an important reform was dashed off so quickly in the speech and with so little detail. Tax revenue in the current fiscal…Continue reading

Business lessons can come from many different sources. You can learn from those who have been successful in your industry. But you can also learn from those who have made mistakes. This week, some members of our small business community shared some mistakes and misconceptions that other entrepreneurs can learn from. Those posts are just part of this week’s Small Business Trends community and information roundup. Read on for the full list.

The craft and hobby industry is booming, reaching the $30 billion mark in the U.S. alone. Online resources and marketplaces like Etsy have made it incredibly easy for almost anyone to turn a hobby or creative passion into a business. But with so many of these businesses popping up daily, it can be a challenge to make one really stand out.

Still, Anne-Marie Faiola, a former correctional officer, has managed to build not just one, but two successful handmade businesses, Bramble Berry and Handmade Beauty Box.

Petkov told private TV station NOVA that the reason has been the uncertainty around BGN 16 B of new debt which Goranov is convinced Bulgaria will need in the course of the next three years to finance its deficits and payments of foreign debt.

Parliament overwhelmingly approved the move on Wednesday, and ABV also voted yes, prompting its leader President (2002-2011) Georgi Parvanov to announce he would resign.

But Petkov said on Thursday the party could not accept his resignation.

He also told NOVA TV on Saturday that a “promise” of Goranov, under which the cabinet would seek a BGN 2 B reduction of the debt if Parliament ratifies it, has not been included in the final version of the ratification.

A number of parties in Parliament that had fervently opposed the deal changed their stance after the minister made his promise. ABV, which has a minister in the government, was among them.

On Thursday Parvanov said they had approved the deal “due to a lack of communication”, since he had been and still was firmly against it.

Isn’t it ironic? You start your business so that you can control your schedule and your life and in the end, it ends up controlling you.

Is it any wonder so many entrepreneurs struggle with balancing their desire to grow their business successfully and have a life.

Author Scott Eblin (@scotteblin) has been there and done that. And his book “Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative” is a treatise to not only his personal victory over overwhelm, but the journeys of dozens of professionals who are at the top of their field.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told murdered Boris Nemtsov’s mother that “everything will be done” have the perpetrators and organizers “punished.”

In a telegram to Ms Dina Yakovleva Eidmann published on the Kremlin’s website, Putin has called the event of Friday evening a “vile and cynical act”.

Some of Russia’s opposition parties have attributed the murder to the President and his administration.

Putin himself believes it might have been “a provocation.”

“Accept my deep condolence on the irreparable loss.”

In his words, Nemtsov “left his mark on the history of Russia, in its political and social life.” He happened take important positions “in a difficult transitional period for our country,” the message reads further.

“He always declared his position openly and sincerely, defended his point of view.”